Reblogged from Capital Feed:

Let’s face it, the myriad of tasks that go into maintaining a business website — blogging, coding, tracking inventory, updating product listings and maintaining servers, to name just a few — can cost a company a significant amount of time and money. So what can a small business do to offset some of those expenses? One way is to create an online job board. At the very least, a job board can be an add-on content page for your site and help draw traffic. More importantly, you can charge people money for …

By Jennifer Lilley

Five years ago Denise Cairo realized that her business needed to change.

TechniCare had been a successful laser-, printer- and ink jet service company, but as the world was evolving, technology was right at its heels. Printers and copiers were merging to become one new and improved machine, and TechniCare was in jeopardy.

Cairocould sell TechniCare, sell hardware, or completely leave the industry. In the midst of difficult economic times,Cairo took a chance and decided to fight back.

She and a long-time business acquaintance Frank Montisano decided to merge their two businesses to produce an entirely better service. Montisano owned Excel Business Systems, which had been Delaware’s premier copier sales and service company for almost thirty years. By combining TechniCare’s printer services with Excel’s copier services, they were able to evolve with technology and override the struggling economy, a maneuver they coined, “Surviving to Thriving.”

Cairo recently illustrated her tactics in a workshop with the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, and plans to continue sharing her story in hopes of helping others achieve the same.

Tell me about the merger between your two businesses:

D: People are better together than they are separate, and when we were really looking at his business model and our business model, there were a lot of things that were really similar in our philosophies about business, and our commitment to our customer service and to the community. So when we started seeing that we had a lot of these synergies together, we thought this is really the blending and the making of a better business model. We physically merged our business in July of 2009. For the last two years, we’ve been working together on not only blending our business, but also ways that we can bring together our philosophies and our core strengths together so we can better serve the community. When you think about the idea “surviving to thriving,” that’s really been the theme running through here. It has been, how do we take these two businesses that are over twenty years old each, and we’re a little bit set in our ways, but looking at new ways of doing business, new ways of embracing technology, investing in our business, our tools, our staff, what are some of the things we can do to just get better, to raise the bar, to excel. After all that’s our name, and so with that in mind we just continue to create different goals and different benchmarks and continue to reach them.

What made the merger successful?

D: We were able to create the vision, to see it, because of what we had gone through the last twenty-some years and where we knew technology was going, we just kept creating pictures of what can we do together. We could see that because of some of our relationships, whether it was associations or affiliations, the more we collaborated the more we saw that there was a synergistic approach. We looked at personalities of the staff, our personal belief systems, our commitment to our personal relationships and our professional relationships, and the more we started lining all that stuff up as far as what we believed in, which I think is critical in the bringing together any two entities, when you can collaborate and really be open and honest with what your vision is and making it okay to say what your vision is. Even if we had two different visions but identifying where those synergies were and were they clear enough to both of us to build upon.

F: I think what made it successful, regardless of all the challenges that there may have been, the common goal was to give our end-user, our clients, a better service, a better company to deal with. So many of our clients were shared, we had the same commonality. Now we’re able to go back to them as one, and the one definitely is a stronger business than either company was prior to it. But the goal of providing superior service is the one thread that tied everything together.

How did you turn the corner to thriving? Was there a specific point you realized you were no longer simply surviving?

F: In 2010 we had a 20% increase over the year, and just because typically focus. We’re ultimately a service company regardless of the product, whether it’s copiers or printers or network computers, at the end of the day we’re a service organization. So by staying laser-beamed on that one word, service, we’re finding the success. The thriving is a goal, and in many ways we are thriving today, but we’re never going to be satisfied or settle either. It’s never going to be “Okay we’re done! We got to where we need to go.” We are a thriving community here today. We’re looking to add personnel, we’ve never laid a person off during the last three years, in terms of economical downturn, we stayed engaged, and that’s the best way to put it. Now that we’re seeing bigger, better opportunities, we’re excited about the new year.

D: Also it’s a mindset or an environment that as leaders you’re called to create the thriving mindset versus surviving. When you lead a group of people, I believe when you put yourself in that role as an entrepreneur or business owner, you are called to create a mindset or energy or a culture. I believe the word ‘thriving’ is really the culture that you can create, or the people you give them opportunities to buy in to the fact of “we’re not just getting by, we’re thriving.” And when something is thriving that means it’s in a constant state of growth, that’s what thriving really means. I believe that when your staff or your co-workers see that you’re constantly moving, you’re not just going to sit there and get stagnant, shrivel up and go away, or we’re not just getting by. If you look at the difference between the two words, surviving to me is “I’m just getting by,” and that to me is nothing is going to grow in that soil. We want to herald the message that we are growing, we are moving, and those who want to come, get on the bus! Because we want to keep going out there and bringing more customers into our family, and I think the thriving is going to be ongoing.

We haven’t arrived at the area that we call thriving but we’re always working towards that. The message that not only do we want to deliver internally to our staff, but also externally for our customers that we aren’t going to sit and wait this storm out, we’re going to ride it and see where it takes us.

Do you think the mindset creates thriving, or thriving helps create the mindset?

D: I think it’s both, I think sharing our successes with our customers so that they have an opportunity to look at Excel and go “Wow, what they are doing that’s really great they’re out here supporting the community” or “look at that they’re advertising on the radio, they’re investing in some print advertising.” I think it gets the attention of other businesses and they realize it’s not all doom and gloom, it’s going to be doom and gloom if we buy into that! The reality is that we’re all having financial concerns, but at the same time we have to speak that we’re growing in order for that to occur. We can’t talk doom and gloom and expect success to show up, it doesn’t work that way. We have to believe with all our hearts, and then I think that’s infectious. Other people believe in you and there’s a great source of energy, and by doing that we engage and encourage our customers. We see them suffering, we see them reducing their staff, we see that happening, and if we’re not mindful of that and don’t understand that that’s what’s happening out there in the world, then we’re not really paying attention, we’re not serving them in that way. It’s a ripple affect, and our culture is going to affect the cultures that we serve. And if that rubs off on them, that’s the part of it I really love is being able to affect change in a positive way, so we can do that. I don’t ever think business is about the widgets, it can’t be, it’s really has to be about serving the people.

How do you plan to continue thriving in the future? What goals or changes would you like to make?

F: Our goal is to continue both as a company and individuals to become ‘a whole lot more’ to our clients. We tagged the phrase “We’re your copier company and a whole lot more.” Our radio advertising is full of different client testimonials, and within those commercials they’re asked “what is the whole lot more to you?” And that whole lot more is different to each and every one of them. To some it’s the fact that we are standing next to them in a community event or Relay for Life walk, to others it’s the technology or the fact that we are available to them for support on a 24/7 basis. Everyone has their own perception on what our ‘more’ is for them, so we strive to focus on being a whole lot more.

D: For me personally I want to continue to engage our staff and glean ideas from them. People come to Frank all day long, wanting his opinion, his advice or help, and he’ll say, “What do you think you should do? Come back with three ideas.” I love that because it causes people to think a little more outside of themselves, and it also puts them in a role of the leadership mindset. But I’d like to continue to engage them and engage them more. (By continuing to foster a team environment and also increasing knowledge, whether it be how we communicate or if it’s, for me personally, it’s technical knowledge, I need to continue to study and learn our products. But it’s identifying what they are and then investing. Our service staff, service technicians, has just gone through another series of evaluations of technical training to increase their certification in different lines and different brands that we carry.) So moving forward it’s a continual reinvesting in our business, reinvesting in our people, and reinvesting in our technology to continue to evolve right along with the technology out there.

What is your message to the surviving/struggling businesses out there?

D: Never give up. Never give up and keep believing. Frank and I will talk amongst the staff, and we go back to the beginning when we started. A lot of times it’s going back to those basics, and saying “why did we do this in the first place?” Very often when you go back to the beginning, that stokes the fire, that gets the flame going again, or you’re saying “Yeah we saw this, we had this dream. And people started showing up and started believing in our dream, and they came along side of us. Then we had employees and they believed in us.” It’s when you start seeing and start creating that momentum again and that excitement again, it’s almost as if the opportunity to fall back in love with your idea or what your vision was. I know we’ve gone round and round and round different times in here, and it is fun because let’s fall in love with our business again! We’re here, so by going back and saying “why did I do this in the first place? What were some of the things we did in the very beginning when we were hungry, and we were broke, and we didn’t take salaries, and we really believed so much that that’s what fed us, our beliefs that we can make it happen,” and that’s what we go back to sometimes

F: My advice would be to embrace change. No one likes change, and we certainly have been through our share of it, but if we’ve learned any lesson over the last five years it’s we must change, we must grow, and we must keep evolving every single day. So change has been good around here.

What is your favorite part about working at Excel?

F: Since 1984 when Excel started, we very much built our business on developing relationships with our clients, and that was the protocol. Since we merged we also focus on the relationship between employees as well. That’s one of the nicer parts, that we treat each other more like clients and concentrate our focus more on relationships within the company in additional to the external.

What would you say is your key to success?

D: My key to success is my faith, without belief for me I would have never had the confidence to start a business, let alone ride the challenges of the ups and downs of being a business owner, an employer, a wife, a mom, a daughter, a volunteer. I think for me personally, that it’s a key ingredient. I don’t think there is any one thing that is the key, but if success were divided in a pie, faith would have a big piece, because without it, absolutely not.

We’re very grateful to the customers that have continued to be our customers. That’s a message that is very important, we didn’t get here, we didn’t stay here because of anything either one of us did individually. It’s always a collection of people we serve and the people that help us. I’m very grateful for our staff and the customers who believed enough in what we do to ride it with us. It’s been almost 30 years and these people have stuck around and that’s a good thing, I’m very grateful.

What are some little things businesses can do to get them through a rough patch?

D: I believe anything that can increase an organization’s efficiency affects the bottom line. If you can take your current processes and really have someone from the outside come in and help you assess your processes, we’re talking print, and get a birds-eye view of how you create, share, scan, store, destroy. We can start finding areas where you’re wasting time and money. It can be in downtime, it can be that machines are breaking because the end-users are doing a process that’s overtaxing the machine, and you could have the wrong machine in that department. We come from a consultative approach and really look at their overall processes and see where they may be wasting time and money. Also what that is doing is frustrating their employees, and they’re not operating at full potential because they’re standing around waiting for a machine that is having jams or malfunctioning. And again the ripple effect, everything affects everything, so that’s definitely a way we can help companies and that’s an immediate fix. We can get in and see things, and see things very clearly because we understand printers. If you need something different, we can help make those recommendations. In the long run if their efficiency increases, their productivity increases, and their downtime is reduced, their bottom line is changing for the better for them.

You gave a presentation about the Paperless Movement, what does that entail:

D: The idea of becoming paperless or paper-less is really what the message is, we will always use paper we are tactile people, there are certain industries that will always have a need for paper, but then there is also this other movement there’s a lot of waste being created, with things that don’t have to be printed, so again it’s learning what those processes are and how a specific company operates and what needs to be printed should be in the most affordable way possible with the best quality or color or whatever their applications are, but then things that don’t need to be, create a strategy for keeping them digitally so that when that client needs they can retrieve them quickly and efficiently. And that’s really what the paperless campaign is all about, is educating people and teaching them about this technology that has been in the makes for many years but thankfully they continue to increase the way that we can print, share, store, scan, and the cool thing about that is some of the devices in the lines that we carry make it more efficient for documents to be stored right on the piece of equipment rather than the end user having to go back and forth from their office to their device. There are things that they can walk right up to the device and punch it in and it comes right out printed. These multi-functioned printers are now computers and they have hard drives in them so they can store hundreds of thousands of documents of information that increase efficiency, reduces the need to print needless things or it’s print ready so when you need it you got it, you don’t have to print it all out and store it and wait some day I’m going to have to have it. Someday can wait right there in that device. And that’s really what the Paperless Movement is all about. It’s great, it’s green. Also the manufacturers are all on board with green technology, with creating and developing new ways of manufacturing, creating better processes throughout the equipment that allows people to have shortcuts and better time-saving efficiencies and multitasking. These printers can now be doing a couple different things, it’s good stuff.

I think as new devices continue to come out, people love that technology they love to learn about it and what they can do to increase their time and become more productive. People I think want to be more productive at work so they can be more productive out there and have fun. With the green movement as popular as it is, I think people want to waste less. We certainly want people to still print! But what they need to print.

You are very involved with the Chamber, has it helped you reach a lot of people and businesses?  

D: We participate in chamber activities, events, conferences, different workshops that the Chamber puts together, because we’re looking at learning and growing. And we share with our staff if there’s a workshop you’re providing that we think has value here or value through us to someone else, we’ll participate. We participate in committee work through the Chamber, and then a variety of other organizations, junior achievement ofDelawarewe participated with in many different levels, for 8 or 10 years now on the TechniCare side, and Excel is getting involved with them now. Also a variety of non-profits, the Breast Cancer Coalition, Frank for years has been doing a variety of non-profit work, and raising money for a variety of different charities. Together we have quite a bit of outreach that we participate in, not just ourselves personally but we encourage our staff to get involved, and we also encourage our customers to get involved because we love to engage, whether it’s people here or outside, to become involved in the community and outreach. There are so many opportunities for businesses to give back. With the Chamber, there some things that are really near and dear to my heart, the Superstars in Education program, Principals for a Day, and I’ve done that for a number of years. They always say when you volunteer that you as the giver get more than whatever you’re giving, and it’s so true. Volunteering has always been a big part of our lives personally and also in our business, we always walk away feeling we were the ones that got something out of it. There’s a big benefit to that so we love participating.

The Chamber’s Communications and Events Department experienced tremendous changes. We welcomed Denee Crumrine as Program & Communications Specialist (best wishes to Kelly Cofrancisco, now at Nelson Levine de Luca & Horst), Matt Amis as Communications Manager (Katie Wilson is doing a great job at Sen. Carper’s office), and Lisa Prickril as Events Manager (well done Liz Pretz, now at University City Science Center). We also were glad to bring intern Katie Dunn on board as Communications and Events Associate. Cheryl Corn, Executive Assistant to the President, also took the role of Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications to help out the brand new team (Sharon Reardon is all settled in and doing well at University of Virginia).

There were over 200 events held over the course of last year, from networking breakfasts to leadership luncheons, and Superstars in Education to the Manufacturing Conference and Legislative Brunch. We presented the Hon. Mike Castle with the prestigious Josiah Marvel Cup Award at our 174th Annual Dinner and sold out the Superstars in Business Luncheon with Wawa CEO Howard Stoeckel weeks before the event.

Our Delaware Business magazine started undergoing some cosmetic and structural changes (you’ll see more this year!) and our social media outlets have really grown. Delaware Public Policy Institute introduced the How Delaware Compares project and The Partnership, Inc. had another wonderful Principal for a Day week across the state and honored innovative educational programs at its Superstars in Education dinner.

Our membership becomes more diverse every year and we are proud of the accomplishments of our members. We look forward to 2012 and the promise it holds for Delaware businesses and non-profits.

Have news to share or events to promote? If you’re a member, here are some ways we can help:

• Log in to the Members Only section of www.dscc.com to share community events;
• Send press releases, news and photos to Matt at mamis@dscc.com and they could end up in the Members News section of our magazine or in our monthly e-newsletters;
• Mention us on Twitter @DEStateChamber and we’ll retweet you!

Want your organization’s voice heard in other ways?  Contact us to find out how to become a guest blogger, contribute to our magazine Delaware Business, or get involved with one of our many committees!

Here’s to a successful and fulfilling 2012, Delaware!

An effervescent and energetic Donna Stone hit the podium Tuesday morning at the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce Boardroom for a DSCC Women in Business forum meeting.

Stone, who served in the Delaware State Legislature from 1994 to 2008 (32nd District – Dover), and is currently vice president and branch manager at TD Bank’s Delaware Avenue office in Wilmington, shared her experiences and life lessons with the audience.

It was her second appearance in front of the Women in Business crowd (her first coming during her time as a state legislator), and Stone had plenty of updates for the crowd. “I have reinvented myself five times,” she said. “And I have a sixth in me. I just don’t know what it’s going to be next.”

Stone guided the audience through her eclectic career path, which included stints as a yoga instructor, a restaurant manager, a Realtor, a legislator and, finally, a bank manager. While in office, she also served as president of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Of her winding path in life, Stone said, “We have the opportunity every day to start life in a different direction.” She then quoted lines from Dr. Seuss’ famous “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”

The tie that bound together all her job posts was a fundamental love of people and serving people’s needs. That attitude helped Stone open many professional doors. “Take yourself out of your comfort zone and you’ll find yourself growing in spurts,” she said.

Stone, a lifelong Dover resident, reflected on her recent move to Wilmington (“I’m very excited about the rejuvenated Wilmington,” she said) and closed by reading “45 Lessons Life Taught Me,” a collection of wisdom first written by columnist Regina Brett.

Among the 45 life lessons:

“When in doubt, take the next small step.”

“Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.”

“When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.” 

Many thanks for a great presentation, Donna, and thanks to all the attendees of the DSCC Women in Business Forum. We’ll see you next time.

            It is apparent that social media is dominating today’s market, and it is not going away any time soon. As Lee’s analogy goes, the toothpaste isn’t getting back in the tube. An important thing businesses need to realize is that consumers use the internet to research everything, specifically how to find things they need locally. Whitney explained the “Zero Moment of Truth” as the measurable point in time when consumers conduct web research before making a final decision on a product or business. Therefore whatever they see when they hit ‘search’ is what will make or break their decision. This is where social media can help (or hurt).

            One must be smart about their social media campaigns, Jess explained. Instead of pushing products or services aggressively on potential clients, she suggested making 30 percent of media posts about specific products or services, and have the other 70 percent stem from the company’s values. This allows consumers to discover their need for a product or service on their own.

            Another very important strategy for social media is listening to clients. Lee said having conversations with customers makes them feel special, and in turn inspires them to spread the word to their network of people. Mariah Calagione agreed with this strategy, telling the story of a dissatisfied customer at a Dogfish Head restaurant. He posted his annoyance at not being helped on Twitter, creating a great opportunity for Mariah to make a big impact. She responded directly by finding out where he was and what he was wearing, then called the restaurant asking them to take care of him. The customer was so impressed that he then posted extremely positive remarks about the organization.

           Mariah also shared a well-publicized experience in which a Red Cross employee tweeted about drinking Dogfish Head beer using Red Cross’ Twitter account. This was a great example of damage control on social media as Red Cross quickly posted another tweet jokingly stating that the keys had been confiscated. The slight mishap resulted in an upswing of Red Cross donations and some free publicity for Dogfish Head.

            It all may seem overwhelming to social media newbies, but there are no rules for how and when to use social media. One can be as active or passive as they feel necessary using whatever tools, outlets and schedule that works best for the business and its clients. And every business will be different as Denee Crumrine, program and communications specialist at DSCC, and Lee informed the attendees.

            To close, the panel suggested Social Media Examiner and Mashable [AU1] as useful resources for learning your way around social media. For those still hesitant, Mariah suggests to pick a social media platform that works best for your business, and do it as well as you can. When you first get started, begin by listening to what others are talking about, how they compose their messages and what topics are popular. Follow or fan similar businesses, experts related to your industry and potential clients.

            We thank our panelists, our host, and our sponsor for helping us put together a great event. And thank our members and guests for joining us at this informative workshop. To see our upcoming events, visit www.dscc.com!

            For information on presenting, sponsoring or hosting Small Business Alliance workshops, contact Denee Crumrine atdcrumrine@dscc.com.

Photo provided by Nemours Mansion & Gardens

Thanks to Nemours Mansion & Gardens, Chamber folks were able to get a private tour of Nemours Mansion all decked out for the holidays! Our annual Holiday Networking Breakfast was held this morning at Nemours Mansion & Gardens Visitors Center.

Members showed up bright and early bearing gift donations for the children’s hospital, which we learned get good use in a number of ways. The toys are not only for the children to play with and have toys to call their own, but also for Child Life Specialists to use in building rapport with the kids and to use as learning aids. Child Life Specialists teach children about their disorders or diseases and how to cope and live with them. The hospital also sets toys aside for the holidays and they get delivered personally to the kids by Santa.

After breakfast, coffee and door prizes, we loaded the buses and made our way to Nemours Mansion. If you’ve never been, don’t wait to go visit. Between the rich history held there, the architecture and the design, it is truly a sight to be seen. Approximately 300 acres make up mansion grounds, gardens and the hospital, small in comparison to the estate’s original 2,000. Inside, 46,000 square feet encompass marble walkways, Alfred I. duPont’s gadgets, family portraits, vintage furniture and other impressive décor. Not to mention the two-lane bowling alley and billiards room in the basement!

Stories of the family’s history, lineage and fine tastes are told by the knowledgeable guides. Did you know that Jessie Ball duPont (Alfred’s third wife) was related to the mother of George Washington? Or that Alfred was a friend of Thomas Edison? There’s much to be heard and seen at Nemours Mansion and we hope you’ll check it out!

Thanks again to Nemours and to our members who attended!

7:30 AM TO 9:30 AM
University & Whist Club

805 North Broom Street
Wilmington, DE 19806

Join us for breakfast and to hear remarks from Thère du Pont, president of the Longwood Foundation

Jim Wolfe and Allen Burkhardt were both honored at the induction ceremony which took place at the Delaware Museum of Natural History. As a part of the Hall of Fame activities, Wolfe participated in the Future Business Leaders Roundtable with a group of ten students at the Junior Achievement Innovation Hub in Wilmington. They worked together on a case study as Jim guided students through the process of ethical decision making in the workplace, sharing his knowledge and experience with the students.

The induction is an extraordinary honor for Jim Wolfe and the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce! For more information about Junior Achievement Delaware, and the Delaware Business Leaders Hall of Fame, go to www.jadelaware.org.

The Marvin S. Gilman Superstars in Business Award, named for one of Delaware’s leading small business entrepreneurs, honors businesses and non-profit corporations for their outstanding achievements and model approaches to business and management. The awards are presented to companies that have been in business for at least three years, are small businesses based on number of employees, and are members of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce. Awards of Excellence are also granted to deserving companies.

 2011 Superstars in Business Award Winners:

The Ministry of Caring, Inc.
(Non-Profit category)

Established in 1977, the Ministry of Caring is a 501(c)(3) organization committed to serving the ongoing needs of the poor and homeless throughout the Wilmington area. The organization grew from humble beginnings into a network of 19 separate programs capable of serving hundreds of people each day, and offering a wide range of residential and supportive services for individuals and families.

Corexcel
(1-25 employees category)

Corexcel specializes in online training courses and materials, employee assessments and continuing education services. Through online courses, it aims to help clients develop personal and business skills and assist companies in hiring, assessing and training employees. Corexcel distributes products for three leading publishers: Inscape Publishing, Vital Learning and MindEdge, and since 2006, Corexcel has been a Diamond Distributor for Inscape Publishing, an honor reserved for those distributors in the top 1% in U.S. sales volume.

Environmental Alliance, Inc.
(26-64 employees category)

Headquartered in Wilmington, Environmental Alliance, Inc. is a full-service environmental consulting and engineering firm. Alliance works primarily with developers, industrial companies, utilities, law firms, petroleum companies, financial institutions, and private and government organizations. Areas of expertise include environmental site assessment and investigation, remediation, Brownfields redevelopment, site plans and permits, risk assessment and air quality services, insurance claim support, and expert testimony/litigation support services. Through its work Alliance focuses restoring blighted, contaminated properties using innovative remediation strategies to create healthy, revitalized communities.

EDiS Company
(65-150 employees category)

EDiS Company is a full-service construction management firm providing comprehensive project solutions from the pre-design phase of a project through construction and facility occupancy. The day-to-day operations of the company exist within six divisions: EDiS Company, EDiS Building Systems, EDiS Interior Construction, EDiS Interior Maintenance, Asset Management Alliance and EDiS Development. The company is headquartered in Wilmington, and has another office in West Chester, PA.

The 2011 Awards of Excellence, presented to runners-up in each category, include exemplary businesses worthy of note. They are: Sunday Breakfast Mission (non-profit category), Angelique, Inc. d/b/a/ Brandywine Executive Center (1-25 employees category), Cover & Rossiter PA (26-64 employees category), and Emory Hill Companies (65-150 employees category).

To learn more about the Superstars in Business program, visit www.dscc.com/superstarsinbusiness

13th Annual Superstars in Business Awards Luncheon

Wednesday, November 9, 11:15 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Gold Ballroom, Hotel du Pont, Wilmington

Individual reservations: $65/members; $80/non-members

Register to attend the Superstars in Business Luncheon online at the State Chamber’s website, www.dscc.com, or call (302) 655-7221 to request a registration form.

Event Sponsors (as of 9/20/11):

Platinum: Bank of America; M&T Bank

Diamond: Colonial Airport, Inc.; The Gilman Family

Gold: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware; Citizens Bank; PNC Bank Verizon Delaware; WSFS; Belfint, Lyons & Shuman CPAs; DEDO; DuPont; EBC Carpet Services Corporation; Glenmede Trust Company

Silver: Cooch & Taylor PA; Master Sidlow & Associates, PA; SSD Technology Partners; Wheeler, Wolfenden & Dwares, CPAs; AAA Mid-Atlantic; AutoTeam; Dukart Management/McDonald’s; ParenteBeard LLC; PSEG Nuclear; University of Delaware; VanDemark & Lynch

Bronze: Aloysius Butler & Clark; Bayhealth Medical Center; Delaware Community Foundation; DiSabatino Construction Company; George J. Weiner Associates Habitat for Humanity New Castle County; TCIM Services, Inc.

Friend: Children & Families First; Community Service Building

Marketing & Advertising Design: Mease Communications

Printing: Farley Printing

Promotional Media & Application Hosting: Delmarva Broadcasting Company

Print/Online Media: Delaware Today

Video: Teleduction

Signage: Parcels, Inc.

Awards: A.R. Morris

Gift Sponsors: Healy Long & Jevin and Delmarva Broadcasting Co.

We were able to cheer on our Blue Rocks from the First Base Picnic area while chowing down on chicken, ribs and mac’n'cheese. Some attendees even brought their spouses and kids to partake in the fun, making our mixer a family event everyone enjoyed.

Thanks to the Blue Rocks, we were able to do a business card drawing for the first pitch of the game! The winner, Mike Smith of Verizon Delaware, gave it a good try. You can see the video by clicking here, or scrolling below.

First Pitch Winner Mike with Events Manager Lisa

We’d like to thank everyone who attended, the Wilmington Blue Rocks and Frawley Stadium, Energize Delaware and Denney Electric Supply, and Events Manager Lisa Prickril for an outstanding event sure to be repeated.